Terrorism

This looks to me like a sort of north-south global war, with the North inflicting profound damage on the South: Here are carbon dioxide emissions per capita by country, calculated from data at the US Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC): and here is the new Maplecroft estimation of the countries most […]

Afghanistan

Update on German Terrorist Plot

Juan Cole

Update: The plot is alleged to have been hatched by young Muslim-German men who had been attending the same mosque in Hamburg where the 9/11 hijackers attended. Some of them went to northwest Pakistan for training, and one of them was captured in Afghanistan in July. A Mumbai-style attack is inexpensive and logistically unchallenging. If […]

Afghanistan

Major al-Qaeda Attacks on European Cities Said Foiled

Juan Cole

The FT reports that the intensification of US drone bombardment of suspected al-Qaeda positions in Pakistan’s tribal northwest in recent days appears to have been related to intelligence that the cells were planning to hit a number of Western European capitals with “Mumbai-style” random machine gun and bombing attacks. One of the drone strikes is […]

Afghanistan

Engaging the Muslim World Out in Paperback

Juan Cole

Today is the official publication date for the paperback edition of my most recent book, Engaging the Muslim World. Click here to purchase It is somewhat revised, taking some of the stories into 2010. Here is a link to David Sanger’s generous review of the book in the New York Times.

Afghanistan

Afghans Demonstrate Against US Quran-Burning That Never Happened

Juan Cole

Saturday witnessed a second wave of demonstrations against the threats by small American fundamentalist churches (especially the Dove Outreach group of some 50 in Gainesville, Fl.), to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, on September 11. News that the planned bonfire of the scripture had been called off did not reach the […]

al-Qaeda

Top Ways 9/11 Broke Islamic Law

Juan Cole

On the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it is clear that al-Qaeda was a tiny fringe terrorist movement, not a globe-straddling threat to Western societies. The organization has been decisively disrupted and now lacks command and control. Its leader, Usama Bin Laden, has not been seen in a video since 2004, and is […]

al-Qaeda

Anzalone: From ‘Martyrdom’ Videos to Jihadi Journalism in Somalia

Juan Cole

Christopher Anzalone writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment– which is particularly timely given the bloody attack by fundamentalist gunmen on a Mogadishu hotel, in which they killed 33 persons: From ‘Martyrdom’ Videos to Jihadi Journalism in Somalia: The Rapid Evolution of Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen’s Multimedia The Somali insurgent-jihadi group Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen (Movement […]

Afghanistan

Rudolph: Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz?

Juan Cole

Jeffrey Rudolph writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz? Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions—two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to […]

al-Qaeda

Global Warming and al-Qaeda in the Greater Indian Ocean

Juan Cole

Politico says that the fate of the earth, i.e. the climate bill in the senate, is now in the hands of Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. This is because he is seen as someone who could get a bipartisan consensus. But Democrats on the Hill are missing their big opportunity to appeal to Republicans […]